The practical Christian

The message of James

by

Gordon J. Keddie

EVANGELICAL PRESS

Grange Close,

Faverdale North Industrial Estate,

Darlington,

DL3 0PH

England

© Evangelical Press 1989

First published 1989

Reprinted 2000

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Keddie, Gordon J. The practical Christian.

1. Bible. N. T. James.

Critical Studies.

I. Title.

ISBN 0-85234-261-6

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Published by Hodder & Stoughton.

To

JANE

a truly practical Christian

and a wonderful wife and mother

Proverbs 31:28–29

Contents

Preface

Introduction (1:1)

An outline of the epistle of James

Part I: Coping with the real world

1. Christian maturity (1:2–4)

2. Wisdom (1:5–8)

3. Poverty and prosperity (1:9–12)

4. Temptation (1:13–15)

5. Gifts (1:16–18)

6. Listening (1:19–21)

7. Doing God’s Word (1:22–25)

8. True religion (1:26–27)

Part II: Case studies of faith in action

9. Favouritism (2:1–7)

10. The royal law (2:8–13)

11. Faith without works (2:14–20)

12. Faith that gets to work (2:21–26)

13. You want to be a teacher? (3:1–2)

14. The power of the tongue (3:3–12)

15. Two kinds of wisdom (3:13–18)

16. Why so much strife? (4:1–3)

17. Worldliness and its cure (4:4–10)

18. Judging others (4:11–12)

19. Planning for your future (4:13–17)

20. Listen, you rich people! (5:1–6)

Part III: How to live until the Lord’s coming

21. Waiting patiently for the Lord (5:7–11)

22. Praising the Lord (5:12–13)

23. Sharing our burdens (5:14–18)

24. Winning others for Christ (5:19–20)

Preface

When historians get round to assessing the Christian church in the last few decades of the twentieth century, they will be confronted by a startling paradox. Never before had there been such a pervasive emphasis upon ‘practical’ Christianity. Never before had there been a comparable torrent of ‘how to’ books, covering every aspect of life, right down to the finest of details (although from a myriad of conflicting viewpoints). Never had there been such interest in Christian social activism on such a wide range of issues—not even in the days of the anti-slavery and temperance movements. Yet all this coincided with the decline of basic Christian morality within the churches and the most startling advance of biblical and doctrinal illiteracy among church members since that medieval darkness which preceded and precipitated the sixteenth-century European Reformation.

This reflects, no doubt, the emerging tragedy of our computer age; we have marvellous electronic communications technology but, it seems, very little to communicate! We seem to be all journey and no destination: we are all medium and no message. This is perhaps to be expected from a world that has cut itself off from the Word of God as the real revelation of the mind of the living God. But the church ought to know better. Why then are we so much at sea on ...